A user (e.g., a music fan, a movie patron, a computer gaming patron, an e-book reader) may share information about their media preferences (e.g., musical, theatrical, artistic, cultural, hobby, etc.) and their activities (e.g., recent behaviors, likings, tastes) through a variety of mechanisms (e.g., through a web page). For example, the user may share information about their media preferences by communicating thoughts in a blog (e.g., a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a web page) and/or in a profile summary in a relationship network system (e.g., MySpace.com®, LinkedIn®, Friendster®, Match.com®, Plaxo®, etc).
The user may have to spend time and/or energy to write down thoughts about their media preferences in the blog and/or through the relationship network system. The user may not have a disposition (e.g., a habitual inclination, a tendency, etc.) to communicate their thoughts by writing them (e.g., typing them) in the blog and/or through the relationship network system. Furthermore, the user may not recollect what types of media (e.g., songs, games, movies, shows, etc.) they recently patronized (e.g., listened to, watched, played, read, etc). The user may have to search a data processing system (e.g., a computer system) and/or a media device (e.g., an Apple® iPod®, a mobile phone) to determine this information.
A marketing organization (e.g., a record label, a vendor, and/or a service provider) may make recommendations to the user for a new media purchase based on business analytics (e.g., transaction patterns such as those found through comparisons of habits/tendencies of similar purchasers) of the user (e.g., and/or by other users, customers, subscribers, patrons, etc. associated with the marketing organization). Such business analytics may be limited (e.g., by lack of sufficient data, accuracy, etc.) in their assessment of the user's preferences.
Furthermore, when the user is repeatedly presented with options that are not to the user's liking (e.g., the recommendations may not provide an accurate description of a user's taste in media), the user may choose to ignore and/or may lose faith in recommendations of the marketing organization. In addition, sometimes the new media presented by the marketing organization may be already owned and/or possessed by the user (e.g., causing the user to be annoyed that such an option has been recommended).
As a result, the user may verbally speak with like-minded individuals (e.g., friends, family, and/or acquaintances) to get a sense of their interests (e.g., the user may trust their recommendations more than that of the marketing organization). Verbally speaking with like-minded individuals can be a slow process because the user may have to telephone, visit, and/or socially meet with the like-minded individuals. Similarly, the user may read periodicals and/or web sites publishing information about preferences of other individuals the user admires (e.g., famous musicians, actors, authors, politicians, athletes, etc.). These periodicals and/or websites may be difficult to find and may be published infrequently. As such, the user may choose to hold off in transacting (e.g., purchasing) the new media and/may delay developing a passion (e.g., a lively and/or eager admiration of a media form, and gratuitously promoting the media form with focused interest) for the user's favorite existing media preferences.